"Ghosts don't usually exist forever"
I started ad-hoc, without paying attention to the script of the lecture
"...that they do, is a well-known misconception caused by a few notable exceptions, which we will talk about in a moment."
The class is as uninterested as always. F*** is looking at me with her usual cold curiosity.
"The force that keeps a ghost together is generally the same that drove the living person. If you had a lover who died and came back to visit you, know that you were truly loved..."
A quiet laugh
"...if you had an enemy who died and came to haunt you, ask yourself what caused such hatred.
However, humans are complex. No single trait defines a person; at the very least, not for their entire life. Ghosts are simpler; as their defining quality is satisfied or just diminishes overtime, they fade, deshape, and dissolve. These three terms we should discuss a bit deeper.
Fading is simply the loss of the features perceivable to human senses. It is a topic on its own, but at a high level, that's it. The other two are related but not quite the same. Can someone tell me the difference?"
As I say it, I look at F*** sitting behind the first desk. The girl knows but chooses to ignore me. The others are silent.
"Deshaping is the loss of resemblance to the original. As time passes, the ghost's features start to deviate from the person it used to be. The age of death, clothes, hair, then body shape, face, sex. They may change, driven by the leftover desires of the soul, but usually they just become impossible to make out. It is not just the external image, of course. Similarly, the mental image degrades, losing memories, habits, personal traits..."
"Dissolution is the process of becoming indistinguishable from other ghosts. It includes deshaping; as a soul deshapes, it becomes more and more similar to all the other souls, but at the same time, its features and memories are shared with their collective. At some point, there is no way, no question to ask to determine if an image belongs to one person or another. We may as well treat them as one."
"May I ask a question?"—F*** finally seems somewhat interested.
"Yes, of course."
"Why do we call aspects of a ghost images?"
"Because they act a lot like images. When you take a picture, it carries resemblance to what you've shot, but it is merely a form of static information. It cannot evolve, only degrade. I wouldn't call this an official term, though, so use with caution."
The girl seems satisfied with the answer, and I decide to get back on track.
"Now, enough of the introduction; please open the page ***..."
